The SpaceX veterans at Impulse Space are joining Relativity Space to launch the first commercial mission to Mars in late 2024. We spoke with Impulse’s COO Barry Matsumori to learn more.
Relativity’s upcoming Terran-R rocket will carry Impulse’s spacecraft into space, giving it the velocity to get to Mars with the help from Impulse’s own engines. The lander will enter the Martian atmosphere using an aeroshell and parachutes, eventually using Impulse’s engines to land on the surface.
It’s an audacious plan with a tight timeline, and Impulse is still somewhat of a question mark. They’re not even a year old as a company and haven’t put anything into orbit yet. Yet they’re confident in their prospects. In an interview with SpaceQ, Impulse COO Barry Matsumori explained why they’re confident that they’d pull it off.
A startup and a reunion
Matsumori noted that Impulse Space’s biggest advantage is that it’s “built with a team with a lot of industry experience.” Impulse’s core team are mostly SpaceX alumni, and its founder is SpaceX founder Tom Mueller, who was key in the development of SpaceX’s famous Merlin engines. Matsumori said their “very good propulsion department” is a key advantage, and that “if one knows anything about space vehicles, you start with the propulsion system and the rest of the vehicle is built around it.”
Matsumori himself joined earlier this year, and is a fellow SpaceX veteran.
When asked why they “put the band back together,” Matsumori said that they were looking for a new and exciting challenge. Mueller and the other Impulse founders saw launch to orbit as a “solved problem,” and saw greater opportunity in in-space transportation. He said that they noted that other companies building satellite “tugs” were focused on the CubeSat and SmallSat market. There was room to provide transportation for larger satellites, and especially large satellites destined for geosynchronous orbit. To service that market, they founded Impulse Space.
This wealth of experience is one of the main reasons why they’re confident in their success, believing that Mueller and his team are experienced enough to see where the pitfalls are likely to come and ensure smooth propulsion development. Matsumori said that they already have “two propulsion systems that we’ve gotten very far with and we expect that they’ll be qualified for the first quarter of next year.”
Matsumori said that Impulse is already “developing a family of vehicles that range from those that can support the SmallSats/CubeSats, to a midsized vehicle that can handle much larger payloads and [carry payloads to] geostationary transfer orbit, and then a very large stage…that can do missions directly to geostationary orbit.”
He couldn’t go into more detail until they make their official announcements. Matsumori did say, however, that “we expect a first mission in late next year.”
Mars by 2024
So the Mars mission won’t be Impulse’s first foray into space; they’ll have some orbital missions under their belt. Still, will they be ready for 2024?
Matsumori believes that Impulse will be ready: saying that “we’re pretty far along” and that “our design will make the schedule.” In addition to the propulsion development, he said that they’re actively developing the Mars cruise stage and the lander. He said “there is a lot of experience on how to do these kinds of designs, typically on the shoulders of what NASA has already developed.” It will be “a very classic design for a Mars vehicle” that will be instantly familiar to NASA engineers, and that both stages will be using Impulse’s in-development propulsion systems.
Impulse’s release gave more details, saying that it actually uses an aeroshell very similar to the one used for NASA’s 2020 Mars Perseverance mission. The lander will use the aeroshell to enter the Martian atmosphere, the parachutes to slow it down, and then four of Impulse’s engines to land on the surface. They are far enough along in development that the picture of the lander on their website isn’t just a mock-up, but is based on an actual CAD drawing of the lander.
Matsumori admitted that he couldn’t speak to whether Relativity Space’s Terran R will also be ready for a 2024 launch. In an interview with Ars Technica, Relativity CEO (and fellow former SpaceX employee) Tim Ellis said that it’s “doable,” and that development on the rocket’s Aeon-R engines was progressing steadily.
As Relativity’s key competitive advantage is their ability to use additive manufacturing to quickly produce new rocket engines and bodies, they should be able to rapidly iterate. The input from Impulse Space’s propulsion experts also can’t hurt.
Why Mars?
Still. Why Mars? Why not, say, go to the Moon?
Matsumori focused more on “how” than “why,” but said that it was part of the discussion that took place between Mueller, Ellis and others at Relativity. They felt that “the notion of being able to go to Mars to make it something that’s a repeatable event, and commercially viable, is pretty unique. We all came from SpaceX and we all saw the vision around Mars. The notion of a commercial company doing it—and doing it efficiently—is something that’s going to be unique.”
In his interview with Ars, Mueller also said that “If it wasn’t challenging, I wouldn’t be doing it,” and that “if people aren’t a little bit skeptical about what we’re doing, we’re not doing it right.”
At the moment, they have no commercial payloads lined up yet for the Mars trip. Matsumori said that was a deliberate choice, as they wanted to ensure secrecy leading up to this announcement. Whether or not they have payloads in 2024, he said that in future Mars launch windows “there’s going to be more of these flights, that there are others interested, and that we will take advantage of that.”
Impulse’s prospects
Matsumori expressed strong confidence in Impulse Space’s overall prospects, even with the current challenging market situation. He said they’ve already attracted interest from potential customers for their in-orbit transportation business, citing the potentially valuable job of moving satellites in GEO to different positions in response to changing demand. He also pointed to space-based manufacturing as a potential market, especially as it may involve larger satellites.
He was confident that their fundraising situation is on track. They’ve already closed several rounds led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital that totaled US$30m in funding, and the current investment climate hasn’t been an issue for them due to their long time horizon. And as to attracting top talent in a tight labor market, he said that since they’re “a startup company with principals that have heritage and experience in a story company like SpaceX” and have “a mission to Mars on the books,” they have been “able to hire pretty well.”
They’re also working hard to “manage the culture actively.” Part of that approach is hiring new people out of college and people who are new to space, bringing them in to get new ideas and to “learn the culture that we’re trying to establish.”
He believes that it is this mix of experienced veterans and fresh ideas that will help bring Impulse Space (and Relativity Space) to Mars.